Thursday, June 14, 2007

Hot Wheels!

Wow... as a person in an electric wheelchair, this news item gave me chills....

"PAW PAW, Mich. - A truck driver whose rig snagged a man in his wheelchair and unknowingly pushed him at speeds up to 50 mph for miles will not face any criminal charges, authorities said.

Van Buren County prosecutor Juris Kaps said investigators determined the semi accidentally hit the wheelchair, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported Tuesday.

Ben Carpenter, 21, of was attempting to pass in front of the truck June. 6 when the light at an intersection turned green and the 52-year-old driver, who was not identified, started to move.

The wheelchair turned forward and its handles got lodged in the grille in Paw Paw, about 140 miles west of Detroit. The rig continued picking up speed and pushing the wheelchair, with Carpenter strapped in it, down the highway until pulling into the parking lot of a trucking company.

Police said the wheelchair was pushed about four miles, but Donald Carpenter, the man's father, said the actual distance was about half that.

Ben Carpenter, who lives near Kalamazoo and has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, was not injured."

I also have Muscular Dystrophy, and this would give me nightmares!

2 comments:

Gene Cowan said...

And I should be shot for laughing at this; I just couldn't stop imagining how that must have looked and what a hilarious sketch this would have made, say, on "Kids in the Hall"...
Then again, I was never one to Respect The Chair.

Dr. Eric said...

You are so crass :-)!